CAREER: Scaffolding Ethical Speculation in Technology Design

几乎没有一天不发生与技术伦理有关的争议。从人工智能的偏见到社交媒体上的隐私侵犯，再到允许在线骚扰的系统，当科技公司和研究人员受到攻击时，人们会想：为什么他们不考虑潜在的危害？技术的意外后果是一个重大的社会问题，无论是在可能造成的伤害和对计算机领域的认知的广泛影响方面。然而，即使技术人员想做正确的事情，这样做也需要考虑未来的危害。该项目将调查一个道德未来工具包，以帮助技术开发团队对道德问题进行前瞻性思考。由于该工具包可用于行业实践和课堂，该项目预计将直接影响技术设计，并有助于未来技术人员的道德教育。该项目将直接介入科技行业环境，并教育未来的计算专业人员。通过这些干预措施，该项目有可能改变技术设计的方式，以更好地解决伦理后果。该项目涉及互补的方法和目标：（1）基于媒体报道的语义分析和随后公众对现有技术伦理争议的反应，得出伦理陷阱的分类;（2）利用分类法推动对技术用户可能遭受的危害进行推测-根据过去或现在的证据预测未来可能发生的情况，重点关注弱势和边缘化群体;以及（3）分析推测性设计实践的结果，侧重于技术的伦理考虑。基于这些研究的见解，最后阶段将是（4）创建和迭代评估道德未来工具包，用于设计团队早期考虑道德和前瞻性思维方式。这个评估阶段将产生数据和社会影响，开始在基于项目的计算类，后来被整合到创业竞争，反映现实世界的商业决策，也被纳入与技术行业合作伙伴的工作。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得支持的评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

Hardly a day passes without a controversy related to technology ethics. From bias in artificial intelligence to privacy violations on social media to systems that enable online harassment, when tech companies and researchers come under fire, people wonder: why are they not thinking about potential harms? Unintended consequences of technology are a significant social issue, both with respect to the harms that can result and widespread impact on perception of the computing field. However, even when technologists want to do the right thing, doing so requires consideration of future harms. This project will investigate an Ethical Futures Toolkit to help technology development teams be forward-thinking about ethical issues. Because the toolkit can be used in industry practice and in the classroom, this project is expected both to impact technology design directly and to contribute to ethics education for future technologists. This project will directly intervene in tech industry settings and educating computing professionals of the future. Through these interventions, this project has the potential to transform how technology is designed to better address ethical outcomes.This project involves complementary methods and goals: (1) deriving a taxonomy of ethical pitfalls based on semantic analysis of media coverage and subsequent public reaction to existing tech ethics controversies; (2) using the taxonomy to drive speculation--the process of forecasting a possible future based on evidence from the past or present--about possible harms to technology users, with a focus on vulnerable and marginalized populations; and (3) analysis of the outcomes of speculative design exercises, focusing on ethical considerations of technologies. Based on insights from these studies, the final stage will be (4) the creation and iterative evaluation of an Ethical Futures Toolkit to be used within design teams to consider ethics early and in forward-thinking ways. Generating both data and societal impact, this evaluation stage will begin in project-based computing classes, later be integrated into startup competitions that mirror real-world business decision-making, and also be incorporated into work with tech industry partners.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.